Obedient servants

Bad decisions are made by folks who believe they have no choice. There is no need to explore alternatives. No need to measure the impact of doing anything other than what they are told to do.

When you feel you have no choice, the decision is made for you. It is much easier on the conscience. But it isn’t leadership.

Every year, the province dumps more costs and more responsibilities upon its creatures— municipal governments. Every year, the burden gets heavier. And every year the province cranks the dial higher—demanding higher service standards and raising the cost of delivering the things it once did. It’s a neat trick.

Meanwhile, the province has steadily retreated from the big infrastructure repairs needed to keep municipalities working. Not so long ago, the province largely funded waterworks, bridges and major road networks. Those days are gone.

The province balances its budget each year, knowing it can pass huge costs onto property taxpayers. Some municipalities compliantly go along, obediently chucking these costs onto their residents. Others refuse. Some can’t. Some muddle along as best they can.

So the province turns to other methods of persuasion. A few years ago, it devised a plan to compel municipal governments to assess the state of their assets—roads, bridges, buildings, waterworks and such. In doing so, it would force local governments to confront the fact that these things were falling apart.

It was a small step from there for the province to demand improvements and a timeline for municipalities to bring these assets up to its new standard.

For many municipalities, it means extracting massive tax increases from their residents and businesses. Somebody, after all, has to pay—and there is just the taxpayer in the end.

But not all municipalities are the same. Prince Edward County has a small industrial tax base. While other communities gather as much as half their property taxes from industrial and commercial businesses, the County collects less than 10 per cent from these sources. Homeowners—many on fixed incomes— fund Prince Edward County.

Another difference: the County has 1,047 kilometres of road—7.72 km per 100 dwellings. The city of Belleville has 1.8 km per 100 dwellings. The County is responsible for a billion dollars of roads. We are not the same as other places.

So it was against this backdrop that Council met all day Thursday to learn the catechism of the provincial gospel.

“All the other kids are doing it.” “It will be phased in over 10 years. Taxpayers won’t even notice.” “If you slice and dice the cost enough, you can eventually compare any tax increase to a cup of coffee (a really expensive gold leaf machiatto, mind you).” “We surveyed your people, and they are good with raising taxes if it means better roads.”

Council learned the mantras and will now go forth with the good word. But they had to skim over some hard truths along the way.

First, the tax hike won’t be limited to a 46 per cent tax hike (phased in over 10 years). This new money is intended for capital works only. The County’s consultant figures that operational expenses—staffing, consultants, supplies and such—will suddenly and inexplicably throttle back to the rate of inflation (about two per cent).

There is zero chance of this happening. The cost of running this municipality has never been tethered to any cost-of-living metric. Shire Hall has never made do with what it spent last year, plus inflation. Never. Most years, increases to the cost of running the business tended closer to double digits than to the CPI. There is no precedent to suggest these costs will moderate.

But the notion is made more absurd when one pauses a moment to consider that higher capital spending will surely drive higher operational costs. More stuff, more work and more rehabilitation means more people, more management, more supplies management, supplies—to plan, manage and oversee all this spending.

Instead of a 46 per cent hike to your tax bill—think higher. Much higher. As this image stews in your mind, consider life in Prince Edward County 20 years ago, when the tax levy was a fifth of the amount collected today. A whisper of what it promises to become. Was it so bad?

Same number of residents. Five times greater property taxes. Are you getting value for your higher tax bill? Today? Tomorrow?

Then there is the lingering myth that growth will solve our problems. No one—except self-interested developers— seriously suggests that meaningful homebuilding is on the horizon. Indeed, every market signal points in the opposite direction. A wave of new homes and residents is not coming to save us.

Looming over all of it is the question: Can we afford it? The consultant didn’t have any slides to address that question. Nor did Council ask.

When local government ratchet up property taxes and water bills, it renders our community unaffordable for some folks. When costs ramp up faster than inflation, they eat into our savings, to our enjoyment of life, to our welfare.

How will Council “communicate” blistering high tax increases, on top of blistering high water bills, to those already struggling to pay their bills each month?

“We had no choice” will be a hard sell to an electorate seeking leadership. Few folks voted for a council to capitulate to the province and to developers at every turn. They dream of a local government that charts its own course and learns to live within its means.

rick@wellingtontimes.ca